


A Prize for Losing

by meimentomori



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Competition, First Kiss, Flirting, Fluff, International Fanworks Day 2018, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 06:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13699245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meimentomori/pseuds/meimentomori
Summary: In which Keith and Lance have a friendly competition over a game of Super Smash Bros.





	A Prize for Losing

“Charizard is not a fair character to fight as!” Lance huffed, sinking down into the sofa in defeat.

He threw his controller across the couch, being careful to not hit Keith, even though he’d won the past five rounds of Super Smash Bros playing as the dragon-like pokemon. A two hour tournament with no take-backs on their initial character picks had seemed like a good idea to Lance when he’d thought of it. He would finally get to beat Keith at something, there would be an abundance of snacks set out for them to much on. And, on top of it all, Lance would get to play as his favorite character in the game. Zero Suit Samus. What wasn’t there for Lance to like about her? She was a hot blonde who wore a tight blue jumpsuit. And she shot a gun, which earned her bonus points in the boy’s eyes.

Though not even the thought of her ponytail swishing behind her could cure Lance of his frustration right then. This was meant to be fun for the two of them, not turn into a full on shouting match. He couldn’t even remember when it had but before either of them had known it, the snacks were on the floor and obscenities were being exchanged at a volume so loud, he wondered why his neighbors hadn’t come knocking yet. There wasn’t a reason he could find for why he was as pissed off as he was that they weren’t laughing instead of screaming. Why they weren’t exchanging their typical teasing remarks with each other instead of practically threatening the other. Instead of dwelling on it for too long, he curled up into a ball, lying on his end of the couch, trying in the most childish way to disappear. 

“Come on, Lance!” Keith shook Lance’s pathetic form, trying to get him to move in any way possible. “You were the one who made the rules up for this in the first place, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, but-”

Lance cut himself off before he said anymore. He moved one of his arms and turned his head so that there was just enough space for him to look up at Keith. He was practically red in the face from the excitement of earlier, beads of sweat sitting on his forehead like raindrops on a window. There was worry in his eyes that Lance hadn’t expected to see, an eagerness to somehow move on from the stress at hand and go back to playing video games as they were. Clearly it hadn’t been fun for either of them. It was cute that Keith was trying to help him out in his own way, even if it might’ve been making Lance’s heart race more than it had been before. He was kind of cute whenever he did anything, which might’ve been a part of the reason why Lance had wanted this tournament of fighting to be filled with nothing but good times for the two of them.

Because he wanted to see Keith smiling.

“Look,” Keith took both of Lance’s hands in his own and pulled him up so that he sat next to him. “I’m willing to play this next round with completely new characters. Anyone else but Zero Suit Samus or Charizard. I think they’ve caused us enough stress today.”

“Can’t argue with that.” Lance laughed, grabbing his controller again. “Who’s another hot character I can play as?”

“Link is always a good choice.” Keith hovered his own cursor over him, bright red to match his favorite color. Lance didn’t know how he remembered that but he had, hence why he was always player two as opposed to the bright blue cursor of player one. Lance’s favorite color. “Not only are his battle faces epic but his sword is too. And he’s cute, if you’re into that sort of thing.”

“So I’m not the only one who always thought that he was cute?”

Keith snorted with a bit of laughter, “Not at all.”

He scrolled over the Hylian boy and selected him, leaving Lance to wonder who in the world else he would be good at fighting with. There was always Fox but he didn’t want to give Keith the wrong idea, with what he’d said earlier. Lance wasn’t into things like that. That left him with very few characters to select from, none of which he used often, if it all. One of them managed to catch his eye, however. It was a bit of a shock to himself that he hadn’t noticed the boy before since he was precious. Lance understood why fangirls he’d seen online used that term in that moment. He had short white hair and a face that looked as if it was as confused as he was. It was a look that Lance found adorable so he selected him, unknowing as to what his weapon or abilities even were. The new information he’d learned throughout all of this was that he might’ve been on Keith’s radar, a thought that brought butterflies out in his stomach.

“Link’s hotter than Robin.” Keith boasted, grinning as they went to select an arena to fight in. Lance was hoping for anything but the Wii Fit arena, since it reminded him how out of shape he’d gotten in the past few months. “But I can see why you picked him. He’s got that innocent cute vibe to him. Sorta like you.”

“As if.” Lance rolled his eyes, playfully shoving his shoulder into Keith’s. He shoved back, the two of the over the tension from earlier. “Should there be a prize for the winner?”

“Whoever wins makes the other do one thing of their choosing.”

“Isn’t that a little cliche?”

“Got a better idea, McClain?” Keith asked, readying himself as the countdown to the round began on the screen.

“Nope.” Lance regained his focus on the screen too, groaning as he saw the dreaded mirror behind them. “We’ve fought in this arena three times already! I was hoping for that one on the plane or something!”

“Just suck it up and fight.” Keith was already trying to swing at Lance’s Robin, who jumped back as he landed a few blows.

“Why is this guy so slow?” Lance stuck his tongue out, trying desperately to concentrate.

It was no use. The fight was entirely swayed to Keith’s favor. Link was agile and could strike without hesitation, unlike Robin who was slow in everything that he did. Lance wasn’t even able to land a single blow on him, no matter how many times he swung his sword. Which, throughout doing, he learned broke after a few swings. He’d frantically forced Robin to pick it up and throw it at Link, in a desperate attempt to do something. Those were the only times Lance had come anywhere near close to damaging Keith’s character. Unlike himself, Keith hadn’t broken concentration to groan or grunt once. He was absolutely silent, pressing buttons at rates Lance didn’t even know were possible. Keith was a soldier with a plan, programming himself to adapt accordingly as the game went on. There came a point where Lance had contemplated making him run out of the edge of the screen himself because he was getting so beaten up by this unbroken concentration.

Once the match was over, it was clearer than day who had one. Lance couldn’t complain though. Through his muttered curses and eye rolls, he’d witnessed a part of Keith that he hadn’t before. A part that had the ability to keep a straight face and focus with all of his might. It was a part that Lance admired, something that he could hardly do himself. The few times he did pay attention were on things that he was truly passionate about, like studying the stars or scrolling through Tumblr. Pidge regretted introducing it to him, for the amount of hours he’d spent scrolling his feed could’ve amounted to weeks of time. He couldn’t help that there were an insane amount of interesting things about shows he liked. From Supernatural to Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Lance was a fan of many things, ones that he hid his secret obsessions of on that Tumblr in which his online persona was named Blue.

“Guess that makes me the winner, huh?” Keith grinned, placing his controller down on the coffee table. Lance did the same, mirroring his every movement. 

“Guess it does.” Lance swallowed dramatically, like a terrified cartoon character. “What are you gonna make me do, player two?”

“Oh, nothing much.” Keith rubbed his hands together evilly. Lance swallowed for real this time. “Only force you out on a date with me.”

“A-Are you serious?” Lance stuttered, nearly choking on nothing. “Right now?”

“Right now.” Keith stood up, Lance doing the same right after. “Unless you hate me with a burning passion or something but, a win’s a win, isn’t it?”

He hadn’t given himself enough time to mentally prepare for this possibility. Keith had been on his radar as ‘the cute emo with a mullet that he wanted to kiss for some stupid reason’ for a while now. He had fantasized about their first awkward moments being something small and silly. Something that they would look back on months from them and laugh at, gossiping about their hidden crushes on each other. Like their hands meeting as they went to grab something at the same time or them bumping heads as they didn’t pay any attention to where they were walking. Lance wouldn’t complain to Keith about this though. He wouldn’t say a word. All he could do was wish for the one thing that he’d longed for the most to happen, the one thing that he thought would seal the deal forever.

“Isn’t there a prize for losing?” Lance asked, crossing his arms and pouting. “I lost seven times, you know.”

“This time there can be.” Keith cross his own arms, raising an eyebrow. “And what do you want for being the worst person I’ve met at Super Smash Bros?”

“For you to kiss me.”

Keith didn’t have to respond with words. He simply moved himself closer, pulling Lance in so that there was little to no space between them, faces inches from colliding. Then it happened. It wasn’t the magical moment like Lance had seen in the movies. It was awkward, lasting for a few seconds at most, leading to beet red faces and eyes staring at the floor. But as they grabbed their jackets to go, hands intertwined, there was nothing more that Lance could’ve asked for from his first kiss with Keith. They were all going to be awkward, no matter how much planning went into them. They were all going to result in that brief moment of silence when no words were spoken. It was in this silence that they had made their vows in their head to each other. To love each other as long as this went on. To be there for each other when the other needed a shoulder to cry on. And the cost of it? Losing miserably at Super Smash Bros.

Which he would do, over and over again.


End file.
